Hospital schools have been excluded from the Rudd Government's computer and building programs and sick children told to bring their own laptops instead.

 

Schools without a permanently enrolled student population are ineligible to benefit from the $2 billion fund set up to buy computers and the $14.1 billion school stimulus program.

 

Sick students have been told by the Rudd Government they should borrow a computer from their normal school if they are well enough to work in hospital.

 

Paul Dickie, chairman of the Hospital Schools Advisory Council, has unsuccessfully lobbied the Government to change its view, saying it puts students at the Mater Hospital Special School and the Royal Children's Hospital School at a disadvantage.

 

``This is a normal school environment and they should be entitled to the same resources,'' he told The Courier-Mail.

 

Mr Dickie said it was ``ridiculous'' and ``impractical'' for students to be expected to take a computer from their school to their hospital bed.

 

Queensland Liberal Senator Russell Trood wrote to Education Minister Julia Gillard earlier this year to urge her to reconsider and include hospital schools in funding rounds in the future. In a letter to Senator Trood, Ms Gillard said the schools were not included under the guidelines because they did not have a permanent population.

 

``You may like to suggest to parents of students hospitalised for extended periods of time that, provided they are well enough to study, they approach the school at which their child is permanently enrolled to seek permission to use school-owned equipment,'' Ms Gillard wrote.

 

Queensland Liberal Senator Brett Mason raised the matter at a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday and said it was a ``low blow'' that sick kids missed out.

 

Officials from the Federal Education Department said hospital schools were ineligible for computer funding because their students were deemed to have been allocated funding at their normal schools. To allocate money to a hospital school would effectively amount to a double up.

 

The hearing was told the issue had been discussed with state governments and they had been given sufficient flexibility to help ensure the needs of all students were met.

 

The comments come after The Courier-Mail yesterday reported that only 150,000 of the nearly one million computers promised by the Rudd Government have been installed.